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Donny brings the case against his roommate, Glenn. Glenn tends to cook quesadillas in their shared New York City apartment several times a week. Donny finds that the smell of peppers and onions is too powerful to handle and wants Glenn to vary his cooking routine. With Guest Bailiff Jean Grae! Show notes

This week:A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Slob
Katharine and Amy have been friends since college. They meet up at a local cafe to write together several times a week. Amy recently showed up for a writing session wearing an outfit that Katharine found unprofessional and unbecoming of Amy's image as a “writer.” Does Amy need to improve her image to be taken seriously?

B.F.F.-R.I.P.
Chad and Angela have been friends for years. Angela insists that with her level of access to Chad and knowledge of his habits, she could kill him and get away with it. Chad says she MIGHT be able to commit homicide, but she'd never get off scot-free. Who is right?

Plus: a session of "If It Pleases the Court" with musical performances from special guests JEAN GRAE with MELA MACHINKO and DJ MR. LEN. Jean Grae's forthcoming album is Gotham Down.

MANY, MANY THANKS again to
The team at the Greene Space for their help in making our live shows possible!
Jean Grae, MeLa Machinko, and Mr. Len!
And our live litigants, for bringing their problems before strangers!

I had such mixed feelings about this ep. I sort of thought the judge put Katharine in a weird place by demanding a store for Amy to go to. To me, it was as simple as saying, "She should dress in a way that someone would describe her as 'stylish,' 'cool,' 'sexy,' 'sophisticated,' 'awesome,' or 'bold but never, ever 'slovenly.'" To me, that's much more specific and useful than a store. Why limit someone to one store?

Tho I did have to agree with the judge that Katharine seemed to be forcing it. Then again, sweat pants really are just a crime. I'm sorry, but nicer clothes are not uncomfortable. I have khaki pants I totally forget I'm wearing. It is easy to be comfortable without looking a slob.

Good grief!

But for heaven's sake, did anyone ask them how anyone would know that they were writers sitting at their coffee shop table?

Rope is based on the real story of two people (Leopold and Leob) who murdered a teenaged boy simply to prove their own superiority, that is to prove they could do it and get away with it (very Crime and Punishment). It would have been an appropriate summary judgement, but this was from a different, more famous Hitchcock film.

It was from Strangers on a Train. The plot of that film is two perfect strangers, each of whom has a person they want dead, effectively trade intended victims, thus utterly eradicating motive and providing themselves with airtight alibis at the time of each respective death and making the crimes considerably harder to trace back to them individually.

My guess is he skipped summary judgement for a pretty simply reason: this was the easiest summary judgement guess I've heard on the podcast since he made a conscious decision to increase the difficulty of the summary judgements. Even people who haven't seen Strangers on a Train (a fairly well-known film) but are familiar with its plot should be able to get this one.